Trump White House might be death knell of two-state solution

As President Obama’s tenure in the White House draws to a close, the unresolved Israeli-Palestinian issue has once again burst to the forefront of the foreign policy debate in Washington.

On Dec. 23, the United States abstained on a vote in the United Nations Security Council reiterating the illegality of Israeli settlements in the Palestinian West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

Five days later, Secretary of State John Kerry delivered a major policy address on the Israeli-Palestinian issue, casting in doubt the feasibility of a two-state resolution as Israel continues its relentless settlement drive undeterred.

With the new Congress now in session, the House is poised to vote on Thursday on a resolution objecting to the Security Council resolution and the Obama administration’s decision to abstain. A similar resolution in the Senate is reportedly in the works.

Surprisingly, though, given all the drama, atmospherics and handwringing elicited by this series of events, nothing voted on in the U.N., or said at the State Department or enacted in the halls of Congress will change U.S. policy, nor alter Israel’s calculus in pursuing its untenable course of permanent military occupation and unending colonization of Palestinian land.

And with Donald Trump on the cusp of his inauguration, the debate about whether the Obama administration was right to allow this Security Council resolution to pass — indeed, the entire current policy framework for discussing the Israeli-Palestinian issue inside the Beltway — will become irrelevant.